Without Disclosing My True Identity
influential and much-needed man into the First Presidency—William Law. Law became
another important part of the LDS/Mormon experiment and soon became one of Joseph’s
most vociferous critics. Joseph knew exactly what kind of men he needed to bolster the
foundation of the stumbling blocks meant to cause the people to stumble.
Little did the Saints know that John C. Bennett, the man whom they elected as the first
Mayor of Nauvoo, the chancellor of their prestigious university, the first General of the Nauvoo
Legion, and the Assistant President of their Church, would be the one chiefly responsible for the
murder of God’s only chosen servant whose voice was equal to that of Christ.
By May of 1842, Bennett would find himself excommunicated from the Church^44 and
would lose his positions of prominence in Nauvoo. His ego bruised, and absent the large
compensation for the highly revered positions he held in Nauvoo, Bennett became one of
Joseph’s most heated critics. He wrote many books and publications deriding and attacking
Joseph personally^45 and finally ended up in Springfield, Illinois motivating Governor Ford
to take action against Joseph and the Mormons who had spurned him.^46
The Bullet That Murdered the Prophet
Bennett’s experience as Quartermaster General and the military training and practice he
received while serving in the Nauvoo Legion would one day “serve him well.” Bennett’s
biographers and apologists can make no verifiable connection between his militaristic training,
his access to weaponry at the Legion armory, his public deriding of Joseph, and his volatile
disposition. It would only be 3½ years from the time he entered the scene at Nauvoo until that
day on June 27, 1844, at Carthage, Illinois, that John C. Bennett would fire the gun that sent a
bullet into Joseph’s heart, ending his life. His face was painted black as he stood outside the
Carthage Jail, along with the black-painted faces of William Law, Sampson Avard, and John
Whitmer, among others. Bennett had secured the weapons from the Illinois state arsenal and
had supplied them to the mob that day. Indeed, every LDS member who voted for John C.
Bennett as their Mayor was indirectly connected to the murder of their own prophet,^47 a true
messenger whom they had rejected and of whom they knew very, very little.
Contention is Not of Me
Earlier, in England, unauthorized by the Church back in America, Brigham Young
and Willard Richards had devised and finally published the first index of the Book of
Mormon. The index was used to further dissect the message of the Book of Mormon and dilute
its true intent into a polluted mixture of the philosophies of men mingled with scripture.^48
The missionaries used the index to help them argue, with a great amount of strife and
contention at times, the points of doctrine that supported the Church’s slant on the “restored
gospel.” The idea had come to Young to use the very Bible that most Englanders believed in
to scripturally support the Book of Mormon as also being God’s word. At times, the
contentions became heated and some ended in violence. Young and Richards overlooked
the only index reference to contention:
For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of
me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the
hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. Behold, this is not my